362 



NA TURE 



[September 9, 1922 



Current Topics and Events. 



H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, who is patron of 

 the Ramsay Memorial Fund, has consented to unveil 

 on Friday, November 3, at 12 noon, the memorial 

 tablet of the late Sir William Ramsay which is being 

 placed in Westminster Abbey. The tablet has been 

 executed by Mr. Charles L. Hartvvell and was 

 exhibited at the Royal Academy this summer. 

 Invitations will be sent out in October. Any com- 

 munications with respect to the unveiling should be 

 addressed to the organising secretary of the Ramsay 

 Memorial Fund, Dr. Walter W. Seton, at University 

 College, Gower Street, London, W.C.i. 



" Intellectual Co-operation " is the phrase, 

 sufficiently comprehensive, employed by the Council 

 of the League of Nations to designate the field of 

 investigation of a commission set up by it in May 

 last. This body, consisting of twelve members, 

 among whom are Profs. Henri Bergson (president), 

 Gilbert Murray (vice-president), Madame Curie- 

 Sklodowska, and Prof. A. Einstein, held its first 

 session at Geneva on August 1-5. The commission 

 had been given a free hand to define its own pro- 

 gramme with due regard to existing national activities 

 and existing organs of international intellectual life. 

 The following were among the topics selected for 

 consideration : the desperate economic condition of 

 the intelligenzia in some European countries — notably 

 Austria and Poland ; the protection of proprietary 

 rights in scientific discoveries and ideas ; the estab- 

 lishment of an international entente for the examina- 

 tion and publication of archaeological monuments : 

 inter-university relations ; and an international 

 organisation of bibliography. All these questions 

 have been referred to individual members of the 

 commission or to sub-commissions for the preparation 

 of reports with the view of taking further action. As 

 for co-operation in scientific research, the commission, 

 anxious not to interfere in the organisation or work 

 of the scientific societies, decided that this should be 

 left to the initiative of the societies themselves. 

 Another question on which the commission found 

 itself unable to take any useful action was the publica- 

 tion by common consent of workers in all parts of the 

 world of discoveries relative to toxic gases and the 

 development of chemical warfare. It decided to reply 

 to the Reduction-of-Armaments Commission, which 

 had referred the question, that it was unable to suggest 

 methods whereby this result might be brought aboxit. 



A Report of the European Health Conference 

 (League of Nations), held at Warsaw in March last, 

 has been issued. It contains a general report of the 

 work of the Health Organisation since its initiation 

 in 1920, a summary of information received from 

 delegates, minutes of plenary meetings, and reports 

 of various sub-committees on the cost of measures 

 required and the needs of various states, with four 

 useful charts showing the epidemic situation in 

 Eastern Europe. Dr. Rajchman, the secretary, 

 summarised the results achieved by the conference, 

 and explained the plan of campaign devised to fight 

 epidemic disease. That there is need for this will be 



NO. 2758, VOL. I io] 



realised when it is stated that during 1922 there were 

 many districts in Eastern Europe with thousands of 

 cases of typhus and relapsing fevers, and cholera. 



From the Otago University Museum we receive the 

 Annual Report for the year 1921, drawn up by the 

 curator, Prof. W. B. Benham, professor of biology 

 in the University, who says that " in the not 

 distant future it will be necessary to build a new 

 Biological Department altogether distinct and separate 

 from the Museum, and to divorce the functions of 

 professor and curator, now nominally carried on by 

 one individual." Fortunately, Prof. Benham has a 

 most capable assistant in Mr. H. D. Skinner, who is 

 well known as an ethnologist, but that branch of 

 science and his duties as Hocken Librarian absorb all 

 his time. To judge from the work recorded in the 

 present report, there is more than enough to occupy 

 all the energies of a full-time curator, as well as the 

 additional technical assistants for whom Prof. 

 Benham calls. We note that the Chinese colony in 

 Dunedin has subscribed the sum of 35/. to provide 

 cases for a recent donation of Chinese objects. When 

 the rest of the population takes equal interest in the 

 Museum, the just demands of Prof. Benham may 

 perhaps be fulfilled. 



The Trieste Academy of Science and Art announces 

 a competition for the best contribution upon the 

 subject of " Partial Differential Equations of Maxwell- 

 Lorentz." Three prizes will be given. The com- 

 petition is open to all nationalities. Contributions 

 must bear a pseudonym and be accompanied by a 

 sealed envelope with the name and address of the 

 competitor. The latest date for the receipt of 

 contributions is December 31, 1922. The papers 

 will be published in the Annals of the Academy. 

 Further information may be obtained from the 

 secretary of the Academy of Science and Art, Trieste, 

 Hugh Foscolo Street, 2. 



A centenary celebration of the birth of Gregor 

 Mendel is to take place at Briinn, Czecho-Slovakia, on 

 September 22-24. A monument to Mendel's memory 

 was erected at Briinn in igio, and in the succeeding 

 twelve years the fundamental significance of the 

 principle which he discovered has been still more 

 widely recognised and applied in biology. The pro- 

 gramme of the celebration will include addresses on 

 the personality and work of Mendel, as well as papers 

 bv prominent Mendelians from various countries, and 

 an excursion to neighbouring caves and to Mazocha. 

 The programme is in the hands of a local committee, 

 and inquiries or contributions should be sent to Dr. 

 Hugo litis, Backergasse 10, Briinn, Czecho-Slovakia. 



A SUMMARY of the weather for the past summer, 

 comprised bv the thirteen weeks ended August 26, is 

 given in the Weekly Weather Report published bv the 

 Meteorological Office for the week ended August 26. 

 The highest temperature in any district of Great 

 Britain was 86° F., which occurred in the north-west 

 of England. The north of Scotland was the only 

 district where the thermometer failed to touch 8o° F, 

 Mean temperature was everywhere below the normal. 



